In Christ - Fully Accepted
The full acceptance that we find as believers in Christ can be a challenge to grasp. When I read Romans eight, I’m drawn to the amount of times Paul says the words, “In Christ”. For believers there is no condemnation when you are in Christ (Rom. 8:1), if Christ is in you, the Spirit gives you life and righteousness (Rom 8:10). As a believer nothing will be able to separate you from the love of God because you are in Christ (Rom 8:38-39). Believers are held securely in Christ, as those who are saved through faith and in this saving grace, they are accepted. “This is the kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so, we are.”(1 John 3:1)
I’m accepted before I rock it out at breakfast, making bunny shaped cinnamon rolls for my kids; and I’m still accepted after failing at dinner time with thin patience. I’m accepted before I ace an exam and after I get a speeding ticket from being in too much of a hurry. My acceptance does not hinge on my successes or failures. My acceptance began in the dramatic, mighty mixture of suffering and victory that Christ endured. Whether I am winning or suffering, my acceptance does not hang in the balance of my actions, but on Christ, who acted on my behalf. He held my failures on his likely dislocated shoulders as he hung on the cross with shallow breathing and proclaimed, with great love and resolve, “Father forgive them…they do not know what they are doing.”[1]
The verdict over my life was declared before I improved my walk of life; my wrongs were absolved while the evidence of failure piled high against me. God did not look at my resumé and decide to hire me into his family on the basis of a trial period to see if, maybe, I am worth keeping. God adopted me into his family, gave me a new name and legacy, and empowered me with his Spirit to walk humbly with confidence in his ability.
Turns out I may not feel that outstanding, and yet I stood out enough for Jesus to die for me. Does this all feel painful to read? Maybe a little offensive? Your brain is already jumping ahead with rebuttals like, “But what we do matters!” or how about this one, “you’re using grace as an excuse to live however you want!” Take a deep breath with me and lean in…
The gospel is gloriously subversive to our human logic. The freeing truth is this, if you could not earn your salvation, which granted you your acceptance in God’s family, adopted as a son or daughter—you cannot earn through your works the keeping of acceptance. Remember, your salvation came through faith in Jesus Christ. The work of Christ shatters the tidy logic that insists, "I could never deserve a gift so magnificent." I don’t know if we ever fully grasp that reality. By the time we think we've got it, we enter a new life stage with a new set of hurdles to overcome, and we’re back to trying to grasp his choice to choose us, all over again. But that’s grace. You never stop needing it. On your best days you receive His grace. On your worst days you receive His grace. It really is that big and unceasing.
God delights in the beauty of our good works—James 2:26 reminds us, “faith without works is dead.” Trouble arises when we scramble the divine sequence: faith is the fertile soil from which good works grow, not the seed itself. When we try to earn salvation and acceptance in Jesus Christ by our efforts, our striving yields only hollow, anxious weeds. But when we rest in the phenomenal certainty that we are already embraced through faith, every good work becomes a joyful overflow, not a desperate bid to earn love. Yes, we will stumble and fail at times. But living from this place of grace roots us in the clarity of our role and Christ’s: we yield, He transforms. So, choose this day to believe what Christ proclaimed over you through His death and resurrection, you are accepted, through faith in Jesus Christ. You get to live confidently in Christ.
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[1] Luke 23:34
